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Group: Tell Clinton to Stop ‘Race-Baiting’

By Kate Phillips May 9, 2008 10:14 amMay 9, 2008 10:14 am

Upated The online grassroots organization, ColorOfChange, today urged its members to begin a phone onslaught of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, in a protest against what it views as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “race-baiting” remarks.

“Senator Clinton’s race-baiting must end today,” said James Rucker, the executive director of ColorOfChange.org, a black-led advocacy group that boasts a membership of 400,000. “She is sowing division and making the outrageous claim that white voters won’t vote for a black candidate. The politics of division now seem to be her core strategy. It’s a strategy where everyone loses; we can do better and we should be able to expect better from Senator Clinton.”

The group cited Mrs. Clinton’s remarks published in an interview in USA Today on Thursday, in which she said: “I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in the interview, citing an article by The Associated Press that “found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

In the interview, she said her comments weren’t intended to be divisive: “These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that.”

The Obama campaign was quick to respond that its candidate had made inroads in the latest contests among white voters, with exit polls showing he did better than, say, in Pennsylvania last month, and called Mrs. Clinton’s remarks disappointing and untrue.

Citing the interview and remarks made by other Clinton campaign officials, ColorOfChange, which has not endorsed a candidate, is demanding that Howard Dean, the chairman of the D.N.C., and other party leaders intervene to tamp down such racial divisions. It sent out this letter to its members today.

Part of Senator Clinton’s message is of course directed at the party’s superdelegates, as she tries to persuade them to endorse her because she has carried several big states with sizable blocs of so-called Reagan Democrats who may be in play during the general election cycle. And that’s part of why the online activist group objects, because it views her overt black-and-white references as a sharp argument that Mr. Obama cannot draw white votes.

Both she and Senator Barack Obama have been meeting with superdelegates during the latter part of this week, although he has picked up eight so far to one for her.

Update, Noon: The Clinton campaign today released a letter from several Congressional Democrats who represent swing states like Pennsylvania. The letter urges their fellow Democrats to consider the backing Mrs. Clinton has received in their states and others — states where they assert she would be more competitive than Mr. Obama in the general election cycle.

The letter’s message to other superdelegates:

Pennsylvania was not just a victory for Hillary Clinton. It was also a wake-up call for superdelegates, forcing us to ask ourselves two essential questions: 1) Which candidate can carry the magic 270 electoral votes to win in the fall? 2) Which candidate is most likely to help our fellow Democrats in down-ballot races? We believe the answer to both of these questions is Hillary Clinton.

How can the country’s “first black president” be accused of race-baiting? Oh, you mean some people are just now figuring out that the Clintons aren’t who and what they purported to be?
-Wm Tate//www.atimelikethis.us/

This is stupid and what is going to happen in the general election. Hillary is ONLY stating what the exit polls show, she is repeating the data. Hillary isn’t race baiting or making things up, just stating what every media has stated before when talking about the exit poll data.

I can’t believe Sen.Clintonwould use this language to describe her strengths.One of the great things President Clinton did was to open a national dialogue on race. Her contribution to that dialogue has just sullied his efforts and her own history. What a terrible shame that the need to win has overcome good common sense. The Democratic Party doesn’t need racists to win, it needs Americans united to achieve a just and equitable society.

Someone please tell me why she should be Vice President. She either lacks the wisdom to understand that Whites are not the only HARD-WORKING people in this country, or she is simply race-baiting. Either way, she isn’t even qualified to be in any position of power. I hope they send her home from the senate soon.

This ridiculous advocacy group. (I wonder who they support in the Democratic primary? ) ought to try a little harder to play fair and to see reality for what it is. They embarrass me and I suspect they embarrass most fair minded Americans.

Race-baiting is a considerable understatement. What Hillary Clinton has been doing is no less than race-chumming.

She even went so far as to use the Gingrich-esque rhetoric of painting people of color as less “hard working” and therefore less deserving that whites.

Ever since she gave up on the black vote, Hillary Clinton has been trying to drive a polarizing wedge along racial lines in the Democratic Party.

What she is doing has been working. I have witnessed astonishing racial animosity from Hillary supporters across the nation on the blogosphere. People have a lot of energy and money wrapped up into the candidate that they support, so they tend to be quick to stand behind the rhetoric of that candidate, which is very dangerous when that candidate is race-chumming.

It make take years or decades to undo the damage that she has already done. Hillary supporters across the nation are ranting about things that Democrats should be ahead of the curve on not behind, such as affirmative action, and the socioeconomic roots of urban poverty.

Hillary’s class-baiting is almost as bad. Her vilification of college educated people, people who drive Priuses and enjoy a latte when they can, is dangerously misguided. The Democratic Party cannot prevail without the support of the people Hillary pejoratively paints as “latte liberals” any more than the Party could prevail without African American support.

The only way the Democratic Party can survive and thrive is if we move beyond Hillary Clinton’s shameful, polarizing parsing of the Democratic Party towards working together as one. If not, John McCain will prevail.

Like it or not, Hillary is right. I do not particularly like HRC and I love Obama’s momentum and his anti-Washington line, but that is not reality. If Obama is the nominee, McCain will win. McCain is center enough to pull droves of independents to vote for his ticket. At least McCain is better then Romney…

Trying to paint Barack Obama as a black candidate has always been the Clinton camp’s strategy since South Carolina. It’s time to end the say and do anything tactics of the Clintons in the democratic party. They besmirch our politics with their lack of any moral compass.

My questions for Senator Clinton are these? Does she know how and when to take the high road? Does she know the difference between fighting to the end and when not to fight, but to lead by example and inspiration? Clearly this race-baiting is another example of taking the low road. It shows us who she is.

How many times are they going to milk that racism cow? Now Sen. Clinton can’t even discuss voter demographics without being accused of cross burning. She can’t criticize her opponent or even suggest she’s the stronger candidate because it’s negative and destroys the party. Tell me, how is it that the ongoing rejection of Florida and Michigan voters – either seating their delegates based on their votes or scheduling new primaries- is not considered destructive to Democrats? Does anyone really think the traditional base of the party isn’t going to collapse in the face of repeated bullying for Clinton to withdraw from the race before it’sover? Those 14 million votes cast for her should simply be forgotten, right? But no, that’s not robbing anyone of the nomination. And the rules only count when it comes to stripping Florida/Michigan delegates, not as they apply to superdelegates (and even some pledged) being allowed to vote their conscience at the convention.

The Clinton campaign seems to think that white, working-class voters voted for Hillary because they didn’t want to vote for a black candidate. But no one seems to be considering this possibility: that a lot of the white, working class vote was made up of white women voting for Hillary because she’s a woman. This would mean that a lot of the working-class vote has been pro-woman, not necessarily anti-black.

I hope some enterprising reporter can dig into the numbers and see if this is true…

whatever… this whole white working class thing was started by the media and their polls. they have done the same thing with the african american vote by always polling them as african americans. why is it okay for the media to talk about this since february and the media is then so unfair when clinton talks about it to make her case months later. right now i am tired of the media and their being so against hillary from the start and obama being their golden boy that anything she does is such a huge deal and anything he does is just a mistake from his inexperience that the media buys and promotes when he goes and makes an eloquent speech about it. there is a total double standard here and i am so tired of it for you all blaming clinton for everything you all started. go ahead and have your perfect candidate that can do no wrong and you will see that he won’t do any right either during his whole presidency and that is if he even gets elected because people like myself (who by the way is a mixed american because that is so important for the media to know when we vote) believe there is no substance behind obama. his words don’t mean anything and he hasn’t done anything for his own city let alone his own state because he moves on too soon to get anything done. so you all go on believing he will be the greatest president because i for one think he is all image and that all his supporters and the media will eventually realize their honeymoon is over. your romance with him will be over… get real folks. come to your senses and wake up.

As a white, non-college graduate I take deep offense to Ms. Clinton’s comments. I am a strong supporter of Senator Obama and do not appreciate being labeled a racist by Ms. Clinton based on my skin color and educational background.

There was a time I deeply admired and respected both Clintons. Their behavior alone (his philandering, the repeated lies and deceptions, the lack of a moral compass, the evident self centeredness), and not that that the media has pinpointed, has been their downfall.

it should not be only the black-led groups calling for the race-baiting to stop. As a middle-aged white woman, I am appalled at these tactics too. The Clinton campaign has not learned from Bill and Geraldine’s mistake – playing gender and race cards, and are proving their detractors correct- that to them it is all about winning no matter the cost to the party or the American people. The campaigns should be about the real issues and those alone. Shame on the Clintons, their surrogates, and supporters who encourage or do nothing to stop these divisive and offensive tactics.

Is it possible that Clinton failed mathematics in school? Soon she will narrow her “broad base” down to white people who flunked math in high school and bowl every third Saturday. I don’t really understand where she is going with this very divisive attitude.
My husband and I, both over 60, attended an Obama rally in Maryland. The enthusiasm of the entire 17,000 was remarkable, but the diversity was even more so. Everyone was represented! These are the supporters of Barack Obama. Clinton apparently doesn’t want to confuse herself with the facts!

The Clintons operate by their own set of rules and this has always been their pattern. They play to win and any means are perfect if they achieve their goal. If dividing the electorate serves their personal ambitions, so be it. Damn the nation and damn the party — the Clintons are first and last for the Clintons. At last the nation seems poised to rid them from the national scene. Let them take their $100 million, plus, gains and take a long, long overdue rest.

I think ColorOfChange is doing the race-baiting, not Senator Clinton. They are making a racial issue out of nothing, especially considering Clinton was citing an AP article.

The people and groups who are continuously crying foul over the Clinton camp’s alleged race-baiting tactics are the real race-baiters in this contest. They are the ones constantly injecting race into the contest. All Democrats should agree that it’s sickening.

Furthermore, all the political analysis on TV, online, etc., discusses various demographics, including racial ones, that support the different candidates. And I don’t see ColorOfChange (or the like) complaining that Obama is getting 90%+ support from black voters, which is way out of proportion with the overall primary results in each state, suggesting that many black voters are voting based on race. That’s no different from any white voter who votes based on race. Let’s be fair and balanced here. There is as much (if not more, suggested by the 90%+ figures) racial bias among black voters as there is among white voters.

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